Materials for making beverages such as coffee and tea are conventionally packaged in selected amounts for making one or more cups. Tea for example is packaged in perforated tea bags that are immersed in water that is substantially at boiling temperature to permit the water to permeate therethrough to brew the tea. No attempt is made to keep the individual tea bags sealed until time of use.
Coffee on the other hand is sometimes packaged in metered amounts to make one pot of coffee. The coffee preferably remains substantially vacuum packed until used by for example by providing a measured amount of coffee in a sealed pouch that is opened and emptied into say a filter basket of the conventional coffee making machine. The quantity of coffee in each pouch so packaged, as above indicated, is sufficient to make a full pot, thus if only one or two cups are desired a full pot must nevertheless be brewed.
U.S. Pat. No. 1,576,735 issued Mar. 16, 1926 to Fessenden shows a particular cartridge made out of foil or the like and having perforated sides so that liquid may infuse through the perforations and dissolve the tea or the like contained therein. As with other tea bags the quantity contained in the cartridge may be sufficient to make a single cup of tea. The shape of the cartridge controls the thickness of the mat of tea through which the water must pass in brewing a cup of tea. This patent also teaches that the cartridge may be sealed by sealing the perforations using a soluble material such as melted sugar that dissolves after immersion to open the perforations after immersion and then brewing commences.
U.S. Pat. No. 3,387,553 issued Jun. 11, 1968 to Tavera describes a particular technique for packaging coffee within a filter that forms the top of the percolator and provides a handle for handling the used grounds contained within the package. Exposure to the atmosphere of the contents of the packages is limited by packaging a plurality of such packages in a sealed container such as a coffee can. The plastic top portion of the uppermost coffee package tends to limit exposure of the lower packages in the coffee can to the atmosphere when the can has been opened.
U.S. Pat. No. 3,445,237 issued May 20, 1969 to Gidge discloses a shaped permeable cartridge adapted to fit within a conventional perforated cup of a percolator. The only sealing of the cartridges before use is the coffee can from which they are withdrawn prior to use.
U.S. Pat. No. 3,446,624 issued May 27, 1969 to Luedtke teaches the concept of a prepackaged amount of say coffee contained within a particular type of filter structure that functions to make a single cup of coffee directly within a cup by pouring the liquid through the brewing cartridge and leaving the porion of the cartridge containing the coffee immersed in the brew as long as desired.
U.S. Pat. Nos. 2,743,664 issued May 1, 1956 and 2,899,310 issued Aug. 11, 1959 both to Dale disclose frustaconical cartridge structures with a predetermined amount of coffee packaged in a compartment adjacent the bottom of the cartridge. The tapered cartridge provides a cup into which the liquid is poured to pass through the coffee in the compartment near the bottom and into a second (ordinary) cup.
None of the above provide a simple way of utilizing the cartridge structure to provide sealed container for the selected amount of material. Furthermore none of the above permit rapid dispersion of a selected amount of water through a preselect depth of material contained in the cartridge to form a preselected amount of beverage.